Drew Barrymore Reveals She Lost 20 Pounds Filming New Zombie Show

The 41-year-old actress stopped by the Today show on Friday to promote her new Netflix show -- The Santa Clarita Diet -- with her co-star Timothy Olyphant, and shared she lost 20 pounds while filming. Barrymore plays Sheila in the show, who becomes a zombie after she dies.

"It came in the middle of this moment in my life where I had let myself go due to personal circumstances," Barrymore shares. "And I thought I could come alive with Sheila. It was a really great goal line for me, because as much as the weight loss, everything's very subtle -- it's attitudinal, it's empowerment, it's confidence."

"It's all of these things that she's lost in her life -- and I felt I had sort of lost in my life -- and it was such a blessing to come alive with her, and it really was so positive for me," she adds.

Barrymore jokes that losing weight was a central part of playing Sheila.

"If you're eating, in her case, human flesh, I basically thought, 'Well, if a woman was just eating simple protein every day all day long she would lose weight," the mother of two says with a smile. "It's, like, a very macabre Atkins [diet]."

Barrymore is currently single after splitting from her ex-husband, art consultant Will Kopelman, last April. The pair have two daughters together, 4-year-old Olive and 2-year-old Frankie.

In November, the actress acknowledged that 2016 was a difficult year for her. "I have cried a lot this year," she Instagrammed. "I have always been a person who is flawed. I forgive. I fight. But I do not fight with others. I will spend my life trying to give love. And I am always aware and appreciative when I receive it. My heart is very open right now."